Selective topics guidance in in-person conversations

A computer usable program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the stored program instructions comprising:

• program instructions to-compute, by analyzing a set of social media interactions of a partner, the analyzing using a cognitive system implementation, the partner being physically situated relative to a user to have an in-person conversation with the user, a list of topics;
• program instructions to compute, by analyzing the set of social media interactions, the analyzing using the cognitive system implementation, a value of a degree of liking towards each topic on the list of topics and a confidence value corresponding to the value of each degree of liking, a value of a first degree of liking towards a first topic on the list of topics and a confidence value towards the first degree of liking determined using the recency, amount of data in a social media interaction relating to the first topic, and amount of partner contribution to a social media interaction relating to the first topic;
• program instructions to evaluate that a first value of a first degree of liking corresponding to a first topic in the list of topics exceeds a threshold;
• and
• program instructions to provide, to a device of the user, a notification about the first topic and the first degree of liking, the providing notifying the user of the desirability of the first topic to the partner in the in-person conversation.

A computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, and one or more computer-readable storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, the stored program instructions comprising:

• program instructions to-compute, by analyzing a set of social media interactions of a partner, the analyzing using a cognitive system implementation, the partner being physically situated relative to a user to have an in-person conversation with the user, a list of topics;
• program instructions to compute, by analyzing the set of social media interactions, the analyzing using the cognitive system implementation, a value of a degree of liking towards each topic on the list of topics and a confidence value corresponding to the value of each degree of liking, a value of a first degree of liking towards a first topic on the list of topics and a confidence value towards the first degree of liking determined using the recency, amount of data in a social media interaction relating to the first topic, and amount of partner contribution to a social media interaction relating to the first topic;
• program instructions to evaluate that a first value of a first degree of liking corresponding to a first topic in the list of topics exceeds a threshold;
• and
• program instructions to provide, to a device of the user, a notification about the first topic and the first degree of liking, the providing notifying the user of the desirability of the first topic to the partner in the in-person conversation.